That’s the race in the American Hockey League’s Eastern Conference with six weeks left in the regular season.

Despite a tough travel weekend in which they gained only one point, the Springfield Falcons remain as one of those seven contenders.

It would appear that six Eastern Conference teams are on their way to the playoffs – Norfolk, St. John’s, Bridgeport, Wilkes-Barre, Hershey and Connecticut.

That leaves Albany, Worcester, Manchester, Portland, Adirondack, Springfield and Providence scrambling for the remaining two berths.

Just to show how tight this race is, it’s possible a team could finish second in the Atlantic Division and not make the playoffs. That’s because there’s such a logjam in the Northeast Division, which includes Springfield.

“Everyone we have left on our schedule is alive in the playoff race,” Falcons coach Rob Riley said. “Providence was going great, then they lost five in a row. Adirondack was down, but now they’ve come back.”

All of which means a tightened race, with the Falcons facing the need to climb past several teams.

They haven’t been able to do it so far, because they haven’t mustered more than a three-game winning streak. Now, they have a three-game losing streak. Riley says the hard travel to Norfolk and Hershey had something to do with it, but penalties were the real problem.

“We’ve got to tighten up the discipline,” Riley said. “We can’t keep giving teams seven or nine power plays in a game. People don’t see what that does – it wears out the penalty killers and keeps other players sitting too long. When that happens, you lose momentum.”

In their three losses over the weekend, the last one in overtime, the Falcons drew 21 penalties, one of them a game misconduct and another a double minor. All of that led to a total of five power-play goals.

Now the Falcons must prepare for yet another three-game weekend – at Manchester on Friday, then home to Syracuse on Saturday and Wilkes-Barre on Sunday afternoon.

The good news is the return of Nick Drazenovic, back from the disabled list and ready to center a line with hard hitters Dane Byers and Cody Bass.

The Falcons also expect to have goaltender Manny Legace available. He has been sidelined by injury for the last two weekends.

ICE CHIPS: With Legace returning to practice Tuesday, the Falcons shipped backup goaltender Mike Spillane back to Arizona of the Central League ... Last weekend, the Falcons spent 24 hours on the bus. This weekend, all they have is a trip to Manchester ... After struggling at the MassMutual Center for much of the season, the Falcons went 5-2-1-0 at home in February ... Falcons forwards Wade MacLeod, Ryan Garlock and Martin St. Pierre will serve as celebrity waiters Wednesday night at Pasquale’s, 642 North Main St., East Longmeadow, from 6-8 p.m. ... St. Pierre leads the Falcons with 52 points in 57 games. With Cam Atkinson on recall to Columbus of the NHL, Alexandre Giroux is Springfield’s top goal scorer with 21.